Lucas van der Linde

I’m fascinated by the space around me and the role that mobility plays within it, wherever I happen to be. I believe that the human aspect must be the central factor within public space and the impact that mobility has on it.

Quality of life is therefore a central concept in my work as an advisor. Because of my planning background, I don’t lose sight of the importance of integrated mobility policy, and I’m also aware that a smooth process is at least as important as the actual content.

Urban Mobility Consultant

Lucas heeft onder andere aan deze projecten gewerkt

Utrecht is the fastest-growing city in the Netherlands. Between 2025 and 2030, its population is expected to increase by 17% to 400,000. The number of jobs and visitors is expected to grow accordingly. The city has chosen to absorb this growth through urbanisation within the existing urban area.
The Merwede Canal area (Merwedekanaalzone) has been designated as an inner-urban development location for 6000 to 9000 new homes. This is intended to be a complete neighbourhood and a showpiece of healthy and sustainable living, with innovative applications of reuse, energy generation, climate adaptation, and mobility solutions. The area will not only become a pleasant place to live, but will also function as a new connecting link between the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Goudappel Coffeng, the founding father of Excellent Cities, has carried out two relevant mobility studies. The Merwede Canal Area Mobility study looked at what will happen as regards accessibility and quality of life around a centrally located road in the event of a complete transformation of the area, with 9000 homes in 2030. The analysis showed that the area would then result in so much car traffic that the accessibility of its surroundings would be jeopardised. In addition, cyclists and pedestrians would no longer be able to cross safely.
An increase in the number of residents, jobs, and visitors in Utrecht will be accompanied by an increase in the number of people moving around. Precisely in the case of inner-urban densification in the existing city, it is desirable for this growth in mobility to be absorbed without that being at the expense of the physical space within the city. This requires a shift from car use to walking, cycling, public transport, and shared mobility which goes beyond the city’s current aims. The total use of space for mobility results from the combination of the number of people in Utrecht, their distribution across the various modes of transport, and the use of space per person for each of those modes.
In order to keep the total use of space for mobility at the same level despite the increasing population, it is necessary for people to opt more for space-efficient forms of mobility (walking, cycling, and public transport). The City of Utrecht wants inner-city densification to contribute to a healthy future, in which economic vitality, tourist appeal, cultural vitality, quality of life, safety, and sustainability in districts and neighbourhoods are interlinked (“Healthy Urban Living”). Walking and cycling for shopping, commuting, and recreation will contribute to this.
In the second study, the concept of multimodal mobility hubs was worked out as an innovative solution for the Merwede Canal area and possibly for other inner city densification areas. Among other things, these hubs focus on:
car sharing (with cars available in the underground carparks in the area);
a High-Quality Public Transport (HQPT) connection (Merwede will have an HQPT connection with various stops, initially in the form of a high-quality bus service);
on-call taxis (and in the longer term even self-driving vehicles on call);
self-service pick-up kiosks for parcels (a self-service pick-up kiosk will be installed in each carpark);
bicycle sharing (residents will be able to access a standard shared bike every few hundred metres); and
availability of everyday facilities such as a dry-cleaners or a coffee bar around the hub.

Lucas Gerelateerde Items

On Thursday June 14th, Excellent Cities hosted a workshop for People for Bikes. Peter Koonce (Portland State University) was the leader of this delegation of 20 professionals from the US. They visited Amsterdam to discuss the topic biking and safety. The visitors, from (amongst others) Denver, Portland, Memphis, Providence and Austin, were accompanied by our consultants Lucas van der Linde, Bas Govers, Ilse Galama, Rico Andriesse and Derek Taylor. In the morning several presentations were given regarding biking and safety, while in the afternoon the group could see what the day-to-day practice is in Holland during a bike tour. Peter Koonce: ‘Utrecht makes it basically impossible to cross the centre by car, and therefore uses the same principle as Houten, the bicycle-oriented new town in the Netherlands. If you compare this to the United States, where cars easily can go through downtowns. We have to change that’.

On the 25th of January, our subsidiary Urbanista Stad AB organized an opening seminar with the title ‘Bättre tillsammans’, or in English: ‘Better Together’. In total 40 professionals participated in the seminar, which then was followed by the official opening party of the office of Urbanista. Amongst others, four representatives of the Dutch embassy in Sweden attended this event, including the consul of Gothenburg. “We are happy to see that the endeavor of Goudappel Coffeng in Sweden to start a sustainable collaboration with a local partner worked out so great and are happy to be a part of this opening event.” CEO Jos van Kleef of Goudappel Coffeng was also vey enthusiastic about the seminar and this opening.
The seminar titel 'Better Together' was first discussed and explanied by our colleague Bas Govers with a plenary session on ‘Mobility planning for vital, attractive and healthy cities’. A theme which is very actual in the city ofGothenburg and the rest of the world and therefore perfectly fits in our Excellent Cities program. His main message was to create an attractive city in which the disciplines urban planning and mobility planning are perfectly in balance. As a result, cities will be more livable.
Subsequently three themes were discussed in subgroups with the following titles:
A process-driven approach to urban development;
New mobility concepts for inner city urban development;
Cycling: Super cycle highways in an urban context.
The main aim of the discussions in subgroups was to exchange knowledge and context between the Swedish and Dutch professionals on the above mentioned topics. The main outcome was that a well-organized process to make a change in the urban environment is more important, but also more challenging, than ever. The day ended in the office of Urbanista Stad in which a festive opening party was organized for all guests of the seminar.
The plan is to give the seminar a follow-up by organizing an excursion for professional urban and mobility planners from the region of Gothenburg to the cities of Rotterdam and Utrecht in The Netherlands in September 2018.

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